In the heating and air conditioning industry, we are beginning to understand the cause-and-effect relationships between inefficient building practices and wasting energy and money through energy losses.
New studies demonstrate that indoor air quality is degraded and biological allergy-causing agents are introduced into our homes by leaks in walls, ceilings, windows and air conditioning systems.
All over the country heating and cooling systems are running excessively never achieving acceptable levels of comfort or efficiency because houses are leaky and so are air conditioning duct systems.
Discomfort is rampant as high humidity takes over in homes built with new techniques and new materials but the air conditioning systems are not designed properly for these new homes. As the energy “footprint” decreases in a home, the size of heating and cooling systems should decrease proportionately. Ask the average HVAC contractor how many square feet can be cooled by a ton of air conditioning and he may very well tell you 500 square feet per ton is the standard.
What’s the point?
To illustrate the point, imagine two glasses of iced tea on your kitchen table. One is a 16 ounce glass mason jar mug the other is a stainless steel vacuum insulated travel mug with a screw top lid. It doesn’t take a degree in rocket engineering to figure out which container will keep the iced tea cooler longer. To put it another way, which mug will have more ice left in it after one hour? You guessed it! The travel mug wins. So it is with your super insulated house; it is easier to cool with less cooling power. So this is a more with less equation. If you build a house with more insulation and more efficient windows, you can cool the same size house with less air conditioning plain and simple.
